The Beginning of the End
by LadybugGirl7068
Summary: The war is over, and Gaea has been defeated. But there is no time for victory. Camp Half-Blood was destroyed, and many campers died along with their home. Now, with the help of the romans, they must find a new camp to stay at while the gods fix Olympus. Sorry about the sucky summary, this story will focus on Leo as he tries to help when all he thinks he's good for is to destroy.


Gaea won. The camp is destroyed, nothing left and almost every half-blood, Greek and roman, is dead or close to it.

"No." That was all Leo could say as he looked over the hill where Thalia's tree SHOULD have been standing. The only thing that even signified its earlier existence was the charred stump left over from the final battle.

Sure, they had gotten back to the camp, but they were too late. Octavian had already ordered for the cannons to be fired, and the Greeks had attacked in return. Halfway into the battle, Gaia decided to rear her ugly potty sludge face.

At least that was what they were told by a half way in shock Travis. Conner died in the battle when he saved Travis from a roman spatha. He had died instantly.

The campers had little time to prepare when the earth mother showed up. Many died on the spot. It was only when the 'chosen seven' showed up that she was defeated. Leos plan worked almost perfectly. Almost. In the process of putting Gaia back to sleep, Leo accidentally destroyed the already half gone camp, taking Nyssa and Festus with it.

Everyone was trying to find survivors or provide comfort to those who were nearly gone. Octavian had run from the battle, leaving Reyna with full power. From now on, no one would fight out of hate for another camper.

Annabeth was helping Reyna instruct the pegasi on where to move fallen building debris. Percy was searching the lake. Piper was trying to calm everyone down. Hazel was looking for survivors with Frank, who turned into a bloodhound. Jason was looking for people from a birds eye view. And Leo, Leo was sitting next to Thalia's tree stump, blaming himself for everything.

He couldn't help look for people anymore, not after they had found Jake's body under a fallen oak tree. Leo couldn't control his fire, and had set the tree on fire. So everyone put him on the hill, out of harms way.

"Yeah. Their harm." He thought bitterly. Nothing would ever make up for this. If only he had made the ship more carefully instead of rushing through it, if only he had made sure Festus was fit to fly and would never explode again, if only he had told Nyssa to run from his fire, if only he hadn't lost Calypso's crystal in the explosion.

As far as Leo was concerned, all of this was his fault. Every person he saw dead, he found himself back in the machine shop, unable to do anything but watch as the flames consumed them. Then he would blink, and they wouldn't. And it was as though nothing had happened.

Chiron had tried talking to Leo earlier, but Leo didn't see the point in talking anymore. All the questions Chiron asked were answered with a faraway stare as though he weren't there at all. As he turned to leave however, he swore he could hear a faint and very hoarse "I'm sorry."

That evening, every body was burned with a shroud. Leo refused to be the one to light it, saying he had burned enough to last him an eternity.

It was only now that everyone saw just how old Leo looked with his solemn face, joking aside.

Ironically, the only thing not burned was the area around the campfire. Both camps sat and cried as they watched their friends' and family's bodies went up in flames.

But Leo couldn't cry. No matter how hard he tried, no tears would come. He felt too numb for this. No one looked at him, and he was glad he didn't have to see their accusing glares. Leo knew they must hate him.

Which is why, while leaning against one of the trees that had somehow avoided his fire, Leo thought of how he could help. They needed a new camp, that was for sure. Leo doubted anyone would want to stay in this place. He kicked the dirt. Too many memories.

Leo caught sight of Nyssa's shroud amongst the crowd. There those tears were. He slowly slid down the tree, crying silently, his face turned upwards and eyes closed.

The next day, Reyna and her last minute appointed second in command called for a meeting with Chiron and the cabin head counselors. With Jake and Nyssa gone, that left Leo as the oldest and he automatically defaulted as the Hephaestus cabin counselor.

Travis attended, but didn't talk. Clarisse wouldn't look in Leo's direction. No one would. Percy and Annabeth talked the most besides Reyna, trying to decide what to do next.

"We could always have everyone come to our camp," Reyna suggested. "You would have to find another place during your stay though, Rome is big, but not THAT big. You would have a few months to find somewhere, and we would give you food and housing before that."

"Yes, but we have well over 500 campers here, and you have possibly twice that at your camp. Space could very well be hard to find." Chiron said.

Percy stood, glanced at Jason, and sighed. "Jason and I were talking earlier, and we decided that it would be best to send out parties of people to find younger half-bloods as well as another place for our camp."

Chiron looked about to reject, but Jason cut him off. "Listen, I know it sounds stupid, considering all of the monsters Gaia raised are still out there and many of our campers are-" he stole a glance towards Leo. "Momentarily incapacitated, but we would be able to find a new camp sooner."

Piper spoke up too. "Yeah, and we could have the campers sign up as volunteers, so no one would be forced into it."

Chiron still didn't look convinced. Before Leo knew what he was doing, he spoke up. "Come on Chiron. After this, we all need a distraction." If the room had been anything above a whisper, no one would have heard him.

Finally, the centaur relented. "Ok. Fine. You will have sign ups starting tomorrow, Jason and Piper will take care of those." Jason and Piper nodded in agreement. "And we will need to move the naiads somehow, so Percy will be in charge of that. Annabeth, we need temporary houses, if you would kindly make plans for those. Nico and Hazel, you know what we talked about earlier." They exchanged looks and nodded. "Leo."

Leo looked up from the table, startled. "Yes?"

"You are in charge of leading those campers to find a place for a new camp. I have spoken with the gods, and they will not help us find the camp, but they will protect it with the same magic used here once we have the land."

Leo balked. He wasn't sure of whether he should be angry, honored, or depressed. To make sure his reputation stayed in tact, he went with honored.

"Uh, th-thanks Chiron. I'll get supplies for the road while they sign up. If you guys need me, I'll be in the bunker." With that, Leo stood up and walked out the door quietly, thankful for the excuse to leave, even if it was a bad one.

He silently thanked Chiron for giving him his own distraction.

OK THATS ALL FOR NOW. Sorry for any misspellings, if you want me to update, just review otherwise I won't know if you peeps like it or not. Any suggestioms on how to make the story better will be considered and possibly used. Thanks for reading! Agent Ladybug, Over and Out!


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